AJ6stringsting

I have become a loyal , Euro tubes Customer ....they ask and go into detail about your amp , you tonal wants / needs and give great recommendations.

I had my Carvin V3, Legacy 1,2,3, and Carvin X100B, VHT Pitbull , Deliverence and my other Mesa Boogies, Marshalls, Soldando, Peavey's , retuned by them....heck, even their tube recommendations for my DigiTech 2112 SGS, were great.

I'm sticking with Euro tubes for life !!!!👍

Been here since 2003, closed the old account, then came back in 2005.

But who knows, I could get a Bann Hammer w/ Sickle with extreme prejudice....I'm not Putin you on either ....I am being Red and Square with you guys 😆🤘

In the 1980's, I was constantly surrounded by dellusional musicians ....many thought they were going to be Mtv stars ....I was just great ful to be playing with coherent musicians and making a decent living as musician in L.A.

Music critics are usually social lepers that love crappy music or are failed musicians that gave up trying to learn their instrument .... So they hate.... For hates sake.

Who cares what they or anyone thinks .... Just listen or play the music you love .... No matter what people say.

I remember critics hated Rush. Tom Petty, Ozzy Osbourne, the Pretenders, The Police, Iron Maiden, Yes, Pantera and REM  ....

But praised bands like the Knack , Skinny Puppy and the Pixseys .... Go figure !!!

I have a proto type American Series Kramer guitar from late 1984...one of my favorite guitars !!!! 

They weren't mass produced until late 1985 / early 1986.

I love their Wilkinson style bridges, I put them on a couple of Gibson and Epiphones. Good quality and improvement in the tone department.

I've also wondered why they don't offer free shipping on smaller items. 

I have played a couple of Agile guitars .... Easily , in most instances, can surpass even the best Gibson Custom Shop guitars.

On 3/5/2019 at 8:21 AM, Kramerguy said:

I'm pretty sure that when a bunch of guys sat around and decided that they were going to form an 80's glam metal band and to make it obnoxious and offensive, that everyone rolled their eyes at them too.

 

And now we have Steel Panther

I joined a band in 1986, that I ironically, replaced Satchel ( I'm not going to post his real name).

The band wanted a Malmsteen / Vai type of guitarist. We mostly gigged big backyard / keggar parties. The bass player was a huge egomaniac / crybaby. He had some many Illusions of being an MTV musical super star. If we would take a break, he would assume this super star persona, so bad, it was like pouring sap on our heads. His jealousy was appalling, he would complain, " The singers getting too many Chicks" and " Your getting most of the praise for your guitar playing". We were gearing up to do a U.S.O. tour for Europe, Asia and who knows maybe some shows for pinguins in Antarctica .... He sabbotaged the band before we were set to hit the road.

Years later, I caught up with the guy, still playing bass but playing old 60's RnB, Oldies and Tex Mex music. All he talks about is how he's going to be a star . All he talked about was man we should have done the U.S.O. thing, how he regretted ruining that band and that he wanted to reform that band .... Patheticly, the guy is 50 and still living with his Dad and Mom. Some folks .... Never learn or grow up , still a 17 year old kid inside.

I really like the 15k ohm "Lil" Killer stacked humbucker, great for a single coiled spaced Stacked Humbucker. Kind of like a Dimarzio Fast Track 2 with more upper mids and more treble.

On three of my S,S,H and H,S,H configured Metal guitars, I put them in the middle, it gives me great pinch harmonics, hard drive even when I toggle the switch between the mid/ bridge possition, no need to lower the volume knob for a fat rythum tone but with my much needed treble.

On 9/8/2019 at 6:08 PM, onelife said:

Ritchie Blackmore's intro to "Still I'm Sad" from the first Rainbow album...

 

Richie Blackmore's version of " Still I'm Sad ", along with Hendrix made me get instrumentally oriented in my playing .

Can't Kill Rock n Roll ....Randy Rhoads

Foxy Lady .... Jimi Hendrix

I personally, like to pick slide with my stainless steel picks and add a finger slide just to add distinction in different styles of pick sliding, beside doing the " Wiggly Angus Young " pick sliding on the G and B string or the standard pick sliding on the low E or A string.

Wow, we are living in an age of great inexpensive guitars , amps, accessories and gear !!!!

Today for under $500.00, you can buy or assemble a guitar that 30 years ago would have cost $ 2000.00

We're sure are lucky today !!!!

I bought this pretty prestine condition , early 1980's 4x12 cabinet and opened it up last weekend, that I bought in 1997.

The slanted cab was larger than the ones made after 1985 , then I found a perfect streight cab to mount my slanted.

The slanted one had the classic Celesion Greenbacks that are 30 watts each with 16 ohms resistance.

For years I noticed that the streight cab had more upper mids and better bass capacity with the same specs as the Celesion Greenbacks.

Those Fane speakers, in my opinion, sound better than the Greenback, by a mile.

Has anybody ever tried Fane speakers and What's you opinion of them ?

Through the years I got so frustrated with singer problems, that I learned to sing myself.

 

It was harder than learning the saxophone or guitar, because you can't press the right keys or fret and have the right note come out. It's physical, you need conditioning, proper breathing, proper breath support, and countless hours of practice. But it's worth it.

 

I'll never be a great singer, I don't have the physical equipment for that, but I've learned to become a decent singer. Add that I can play sax, wind synth, guitar, bass, drums, flute, and some keys, and it makes it easier for me to be wanted in a band.

 

But back in them late 1970s I was seeing a fantastic singer who was playing in another band. She also played a rhythm guitar. Pardon the cliche but it was love at first sight, we didn't know it then, it was just lust and fun. But it was both relaxing and exciting from day one.

 

Our bands broke up within weeks of each other. We decided to try something together. Got a piano player, a drum machine and played trio gigs. Later we added a drummer and bass player. That band broke up so we went to the "Musician's Exchange" and found new musicians and was gigging in another 5 piece band. Bass player quit for personal reasons, and we replaced him, drummer quit and we replaced her. Total out of work was 3 months to break the new musicians in.

 

Then when we got our first gig, the room was packed, so they opened the accordion pleat wall and set us in the bar. The new drummer said that God wouldn't forgive her if she played in a bar. I said God would have to forgive me for homicide if you don't play tonight.

 

Talk about delusional -- where did she think we were going to play?

 

The next day Leilani and I quit the band. I bought a Teac 4 channel reel-to-reel and I would record backing tracks. 16 hours a day, 7 days a week and when we had enough tracks for a gig, we went out as a duo. That was in 1985 Eventually digital came along and we ditched the tape for various digital formats. I ended up marrying her and we haven't been out of work since our second year as a duo. Once we established a reputation, we get repeat bookings and we're still doing it.

 

We are both stable, hard-working, professional, and we haven't had personnel problems since.

 

Notes

Congrats, that in my opinion is success, even if you don't have platnium records on your wall or do you ?

When I moved to the Fairfax district in L.A. , I met great people like Michael Fell and Gina Zamparelli ( God Rest that Angel's soul ) , they introduced me to world class Rock musicians to play with

I didn't become an MTV star, but I had great Musicians to play with / learn from, had a car with a full tank, a fridge full of food, rent paid on time and blessing of a Life time .... To me , I was fulfilled and happy.

The most I hoped for was to make a living as a hiredgun Guitarist.

I use 46-10 on my Floyd Rose trems with three springs.

Lately, that guage of strings are feeling like speggetti under my fingers, I'M thinking of loading up my Floyd Rose guitars with 11, 14, 18, 28, 38, 48 or 52 on my low E

I do 2 whole step bends and I need more resistance.

Harmony Central should have a room to play with others .... it would be ground breaking.

Artec is South Korean, not Chinese.

GFS just buys Chinese Artec pickups wholesale and resells them. You can find EBay loaded with the same pickups all over the place.

 

The problem with the Artec pickups is many of the sets are overwound which kills their treble response. The owner of GFS is a boob who seems to relish the promotion of Hot wound as "More is Better" which simply isn't the case. When it comes to winding pickups it involved neither too little or too much. Its all about balancing the winds to the magnet strength to obtain just the right gain vs frequency response. The GFS guy doesn't wind his pickups he just resells what he buys so everything is promoted as being "great" in his ads and that simply isn't the case. Some of the Vintage winds come close to the originals but the hot wounds sound awful.

 

If you are building a guitar and simply needed something that will work, certain sets of the Artec will pass for being mediocre, stock pickups.

If you're looking for an upgrade, you're definitely looking in the wrong place. The price you pay should be a dead give away.

 

The add that guy posted as being marked down from $150 is total garbage too. There isn't an Artec pickup made that sells for more then $50 retail. You can buy the same if you scan ebay. I found this alnico 65 set for $50 on my first search. You simply need to know what the specs are for a set of 63's and do a little digging to find similar results. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Strat-Picku...8AAOSwXoxaae2W

GFS's prices have become outrageous in the last few years, due to the success of the Mean 90's, Fat Pats, VEH, Dream 180's and Crunchy Pat pickups.

I own Bare Knuckle, Dimarzio, Seymour Duncan, Carvin and 1970's - early 1980's Bill Lawrence.

GFS, Dragon Fire ( TnT Guitars) , Guitar Heads and Tone Rider, even though much less expensive than the established brands, have comparable pickups to the " Big Brands" , without a doubt.

Like beauty, good tone is in ear of the beholder.

I ordered this exact set, a year and a half ago on the recommendations of a fellow forumite and the set has a very Mark Knopfler sound ....

I agree with Phil, they should remove " set " from the discription.

Luckily, I've have had great shopping experiences and service from them.

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I wonder if they will ever show their results.

The survey was very fast and easy.

I bought a couple of 2x12 Behringer amps off a gear snob buddy of mine.

He came over and he was amazed on how good I made them sound and I could see the regret in his eyes.

Bugera amps are good sounding amps, but the customer service is practically non existent, from what heard and read from people and online.

Bugera has a bad wrap like Carvin, Burny, Edwards, Epiphone, Squire, Tokai and others.

I tried a Bugera amp, I think it was 333, I could be wrong, but anyway, the amp had some great drive to it, on the two overdrive channels, but if you put a overdrive pedal up front, you better lighten the gain on pedal and the clean channel was great. Overall, it was a good amp for Hard Rock / Metal.

Great stuff here !!!!

I wanna enlist !!!!

I'm in lust with that guitar !!!!

I'm especially a fan of the white one. Most awesome.

 

 

 

The White one has a maple / maple fret board Mite Mite neck, a 1979 Fender Strat body, Fender Custom Shop "69" pickups ( Neck / Middle), a Schaller S6 pickup in the bridge ( rated at 13.09k ohms) with a Wilkinson tremolo.

The Sunburst Strat has a Stew-Mac Ash wood body, a Squire maple / rosewood fret board ( best neck ever), Fender Texas Specials ( Neck / Middle), now has a Dragon Fire Duo Rail pickup ( 11.97k ohms) in the bridge with a Wilkinson tremolo.

One of my guitar students gave me a left handed Squire neck with a 70's style ( large) head stock. I may go hunting on evilbay to get me a body and build another Frankenstrat !!!!